Urmila Matondkar resigns from Congress

Bollywood star turned politician Urmila Matondkar who contested from Mumbai for the Lok Sabha elections on a Congress ticket has resigned from the party blaming ‘petty politics’

She said that her complaint to former Mumbai Congress president Milind Deora went unheeded by the party leadership in the city. Urmila Matondkar said that not only was her letter to Deora dated May 16th was leaked, but also her concerns where she had held certain people responsible for her electoral loss due to ‘petty in-house politics’ were not addressed

“First thought of resignation came to me when after my repeated efforts, no action was taken in pursuance of my letter dated 16th May, addressed to then Mumbai Congress President Mr Milind Deora,” she said in a statement.

In July, a letter written by Matondkar criticising trusted aides of her senior colleague Sanjay Nirupam triggered a war of words in the state unit of the party, few days after the resignation of then party’s Mumbai chief Milind Deora.

In the letter, dated May 16, addressed to Deora, Matondkar had criticised the conduct of Sandesh Kondvilkar and Bhushan Patil, close associates of Nirupam. She highlighted the failure of the party leadership on coordination at the local level, mobilising workers at grassroots and failure to provide proper resources to her by the two campaign coordinators.

Submitting her resignation from the party, Matondkar slammed the “blatant betrayal” after “the letter containing privileged and confidential communication was conveniently leaked to the media.”

Needless to say, no one from the party was apologetic or even concerned towards me for the same despite my repeated protests,” she said.

Matondkar also objected to the “rewards” given to party leaders in Mumbai North despite their “shoddy performance in the Lok Sabha elections.” The party lost all the five seats in Mumbai in the elections.

“Some of the persons specifically named in my letter for the shoddy performance of INC in MUMBAI North were rewarded with newer positions instead of holding them accountable for their acts and omissions,” she said in her resignation letter, adding that “it is obvious that the key functionaries of Mumbai Congress are either unable or not committed to bring about a change and transformation in the organisation for betterment of the party.”